and that's because mitt romney played defense a lot of the first half of this year. whether it was in the primaries or in may, when the primary was finally over, and the obama campaign really started to hit him hard on his bain record. there hasn't an opening or an effective way for him to articulate a vision to turning the economy around. and it shows in the poll numbers. >> lynn, if governor romney can't hang this economy over the president's neck in the next three or four weeks, is there a chance he can beat him? >> of course there is one big blooper from obama, and the mistake may certainly change the trajectory of the campaign. but garrett made a very good point. i want to quickly build on another reason why obama might have dealt with housing today. he's doing his debate prep in a suburb of las vegas. where is he now that it's hard hit? so, again, this is another reason -- a reason he's camped out there, deliberately, so to try to bolster his support in nevada. and again, i think he's just prophylactically building a community around himself, dealing with housi